Dark Day at Bull Run (cont.)
21 JULY 1861
DARK DAY AT BULL RUN (cont.)
Exploding Union shrapnel ripped through the Henry house striking udith Henry in the neck and flank and nearly amputating her foot. Her daughter, Ellen, had taken refuge within the fireplace and was unhurt. John Henry, her son, was caught outside and spend the rest of the battle prone in the yard, all the while weeping over the sound of his mother’s painful cries. Judith Henry died later that day, before sunset, the first civilian casualty of the Civil War.
Through the afternoon of July 21st Union and Confederate hammered each other across Henry Hill. Reynolds’ Marines took up position behind the rise upon which Griffin’s battery stood, but here they found themselves subject to heavy fire from their right flank as well as from Confederate “overs” falling from in front. Three times the inexperienced regiment broke under this fire, but three times Reynolds and his officers rallied the men. Near mid-afternoon Griffin detached his two naval howitzers to an exposed knoll on his extreme right, from whence they could enfilade the whole Confederate artillery line. Infantry protection for these howitzers was requested, but the gunners had positioned themselves before that support could materialize. And as the cannoneers loaded their first rounds, a solid line of Virginians stepped unexpectedly from the trees only 50 yards away. They loosed a murderous volley that struck down every man of the howitzer crews. The rebels bounded to the guns and turned them toward the Union lines. It proved the pivotal point of the battle.
The Union situation turned dreadful. Confusion reigned. Through the smoke of battle men had trouble distinguishing the varied blue and gray friendly uniforms from those of the enemy. Hanging limp in the slack breeze, the red, white, and blue “Stars and Stripes” was difficult for panicked soldiers to differentiate from the similarly patterned Confederate “Stars and Bars.” McDowell’s numerically superior recruits ran. Most didn’t stop until they reached Washington. Reynolds’ men were among them.
Back at the Marine Barracks, Reynolds berated the performance of his regiment. He had lost nine killed and 35 wounded or missing, but those numbers didn’t account the 70 he had been forced to reclaim from the custody of the provost marshal. CDR John A. Dahlgren of the Navy Ordnance Depot deplored the loss of two naval howitzers. In a letter to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, USMC Commandant COL John Harris admitted this to be the first time the Corps had, “turned their backs to the enemy.” In retrospect however, that Reynolds was able rally and hold his raw recruits at all on this bloody day is now considered remarkable.
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 29 JUL 24
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Davis, William C. Battle at Bull Run: A History of the First Major Campaign of the Civil War. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State Univ Press, 1977.
Department of the Navy, Naval History Division. Civil War Naval Chronology 1861-1865. Washington, DC: GPO, 1961, p. I-20.
Metcalf, Clyde H. A History of the United States Marine Corps. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1939, pp. 198-99.
Millett, Allan R. Semper Fidelis: The History of the United States Marine Corps. New York, NY: Macmillan Pub Co., 1980, pp. 93-95.
Moskin, J. Robert. The U.S. Marine Corps Story, 3rd ed. Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1992, pp. 79-80.
Pierce, Philip N. and Frank O. Hough. The Compact History of the United States Marine Corps. New York, NY: Hawthorn Books, 1964, pp. 120-22.
Site Visit, Manassas National Battlefield, Manassas, VA, September 2001.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: The Confederacy’s official flag, the “Stars and Bars” bore three horizontal bars of red, white, and blue and a blue canton containing a star for each Confederate State. It resembled the Union’s “Stars and Stripes” closely, especially when draped calmly on the staff. To avoid further confusion, after this battle the Confederacy designated a “battle ensign” that was identifiable even hanging limp–the ensign we call today the “rebel flag” with its familiar blue “X” across a field of solid red.
The National Park Service preserves the Manassas National Battlefield in much the same state as it was in 1861. Indeed, period guns have been deployed on the field today as they were arranged at the critical moment Griffin’s far right battery fell.
